Chemical Tuning of Molecular Magnetic and Optical Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Molecular materials have a unique ability to translate the properties of their molecular building blocks into macroscopic features. Numerous studies have shown that a bottom-up approach serves well as a rational strategy in the design of functional materials, whose functionalities cover a wide spectrum of properties. Indeed, molecular materials unlock a variety of properties that are not achievable in conventional alloy- or oxide-based materials. In particular, molecular magnetism and molecular optics have been discovered and broadly developed, which may offer practical solutions for such important problems as efficient storage and fast processing of data. By the use of quantum effects, rooted in the molecular level of such materials, peculiar properties emerged, such as single-molecule or single-chain magnet behaviour. Moreover, molecular materials often can respond to the application of external stimuli, both physical and chemical, by the change of certain properties, e.g., magnetic, absorption, or luminescent ones. Responsivity to a chemical stimulus is particularly interesting in such materials as it may be utilized in the construction of small molecule sensors or chemical-to-physical information convertors. The last few years have shown that we can effectively design and synthesize chemically switchable materials with a significant and easy-to-measure physical response to such a stimulus, which brings us closer to real-life applications.

This Special Issue Chemical tunning of molecular magnetic and optical materials welcomes original research papers and reviews discussing molecular materials whose magnetic and optical features are controlled by chemical stimuli. In this issue, we would like to highlight recent and significant achievements in the field and draw a perspective on the further development of chemically tuned molecular magnetic and optical materials, such as molecular nanomagnets, spin transition materials, luminescent molecular magnets, luminescent thermometers, vapochromic systems. We aim to gather current knowledge concerning the design, synthesis, development, and characterisation of such chemo-responsive molecular systems.

Dr. Mateusz Reczyński
Dr. Szymon Chorazy
Guest Editors

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• molecular materials
• stimuli-responsive materials
• sensors
• molecular magnets
• spin transition materials
• luminophores
• vapochromic systems
• luminescent magnets
• optical thermometry